Two-vehicle wreck sends two women to Austin hospital

A van lands on its roof after flipping in a two-vehicle wreck on U.S. 77 near Hope on Saturday evening. The van came to rest on the northbound shoulder. Two women were flown by helicopter to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. If you take a news photo, please send it to share@VictoriaAdvocate.net.

Two Fort Worth women were airlifted to University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin around 5 p.m. Saturday following a two-vehicle wreck near Hope in rural Lavaca County.

Department of Public Safety Trooper Frank Mercado said the women, ages 88 and 58, were traveling south on U.S. Highway 77 when they struck a Hallettsville man driving a Honda Ridgeline pickup.

The man was stopped at County Road 413 and pulled out onto the highway when the van hit his truck on the driver's side, Mercado said.

The van flipped and came to rest on its roof on the northbound shoulder of the highway, said James Herchek with the Yoakum Fire Department.

Both women were transported to the Austin hospital and the man was transported to Yoakum Community Hospital. He was treated and released, Mercado said.

The man was charged with intoxication assault, a third-degree felony.

Mercado would not release the names of the people involved in the wreck.